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Prior General of the 
Carmelites 




The Carmelite Press 

Carmelite Monastery 
338 East 29th Street 
New York City 


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Arthur J. Scanlon, S. T. D. 

Censor Librorum 

Hh Patrick Cardinal Hayes 
Archbishop, New York 



CONTENTS 


OKS 

PAGE 

Religion in England During the Lifetime of 
Simon. 9 

Cells of the First Western Carmelites. 13 

The Cell of Saint Simon Stock... 17 

The Family of Saint Simon Stock. 22 

Simon in His Tree-Trunk Cell. 27 

Saint Simon’s First Miracle. 35 

Our Lady’s Prophecy Realized in His Vocation 42 














































































THE LIFE OF SAINT SIMON STOCK 


Religion in England During the Lifetime of 
Simon 

S IMON STOCK was born towards the 
middle of the second half of the 
Twelfth Century. Long before his birth 
the struggle between the civil and the 
ecclesiastical powers had begun. Although 
it seemed to have reached a climax in the 
reign of King John (1199-1216), neverthe¬ 
less it continued intermittently during the 
hundred years of Simons life. Nor did it 
end then. Throughout the Middle Ages the 
strong antagonism on the part of the secu¬ 
lar powers towards the claims of the eccle¬ 
siastics was everywhere apparent. There 
were never wanting defenders of the rights 
of the Church; hence the struggle at times 
was fierce and prolonged. This deplorable 
contest could not be carried on in the nation 
without having its effects on the faith and 
morals of the people at large. The feudal 
system under which the people lived at the 
time had made it imperative that the 
poorer and dependent classes should par¬ 
ticipate, whether for good or ill, in the polit- 


9 


The Life of Saint Simon Stock 

ical and religious movements of their liege 
lords. 

When the whole nation was laid under 
Interdict, as happened in the year 1208, the 
faithful, no matter how free from all culpa¬ 
bility, were sure to feel the direful effects 
of the ecclesiastical ban. Local Interdicts, 
of rather frequent occurrence, brought the 
selfsame inconveniences to all who came 
within the sphere of the ecclesiastical sen¬ 
tence. The scandalous and irreligious con¬ 
duct of King and Noble that called forth 
those spiritual penalties was ill example to 
the great body of the people. In addition 
to the deprivation of the ordinary spiritual 
helps for the people there was a partisan 
animosity begotten in the minds of many 
by those recurring contests. 

It is quite true that the faithful had 
nothing to gain, nay rather had much to 
lose, in the triumph of the secular powers. 
What was gained by King or Noble was 
most likely to be squandered on warlike en¬ 
terprises or lavished in selfish luxury. On 
the other hand the Church did not forget 
the poor and the afflicted; hospitals and asy¬ 
lums were opened; and schools and colleges 
were erected, the expenses of which were 
defrayed from the revenues of its lands 


10 


The Life of Saint Simon Stock 

and houses. To fill the too-often empty 
exchequer of the State the King would keep 
episcopal Sees vacant and benefices unfilled 
so that their emoluments might become the 
property of the royal household. Ecclesi¬ 
astics, who valued their sacred calling more 
than they did the kingly favor, resisted 
stoutly those abuses; hence the struggle 
was as we have already remarked both 
fierce and prolonged. 

Notwithstanding the disturbed state of 
affairs the heart of the people remained 
true to the old faith during all those years. 
History may recount many great sins com¬ 
mitted in the Middle Ages, but it must not, 
in justice to the people, omit to record the 
great penances that followed in atonement 
for them. The traveler in England can see 
undeniable evidences, lasting even to the 
present time, of the solid, aye and even 
fervent, faith of the twelfth, thirteenth and 
fourteenth centuries. What a wonderful 
testimony for the religion of those ages 
there is in those old ruined monasteries, 
and those magnificent churches now crum¬ 
bling to decay! Need we appeal to those 
seats of learning so venerable and yet so 
efficient in our own times? If we would 
learn somewhat of the high-water mark of 


11 


The Life of Saint Simon Stock 

the spirituality of those ages we have only 
to turn to the untenanted hermitages built 
in so many out-of-the-way places, to the 
ancient oratories of the anchorites perched 
high upon the lofty hill or on the moun¬ 
tain’s brow, to the venerable yet fast- 
decaying reclusoria once inhabited by 
members of the devout female sex. Verily, 
it was not an idle title given to the England 
of ages alas! long fled the land—“The 
Dowry of Mary.” 


12 


Cells of the First Western Carmelites 


D URING those three centuries were to 
be found in almost every part of 
England the habitations or cells of men and 
of women who had left all to follow “on the 
narrow path” the footsteps of the Son of 
God. In their attempts to get away as far 
as possible from the distractions of the 
world they had recourse to ways and means 
that to-day excite our wonder whilst they 
demand our admiration. Were we not in 
possession of the facts, we should hesitate 
to believe that men and women in those 
ages could make such sacrifices for their 
spiritual ideals. Doubtless the idea upper¬ 
most in their minds was to get as near as 
possible to martyrdom without the actual 
“shedding of blood.” In other words they 
were determined to gain the guerdon of 
what was then graphically called “white 
martyrdom.” To this end they selected the 
most extraordinary places of abode. Some¬ 
times a solitary would be found perched 
away up on a mountain peak, far away 
from the path of even the most curious 
traveler; sometimes deep down in a cave 
into which only the wild animal hitherto 


13 


The Life of Saint Simon Stock 

had dared to enter; sometimes caged, like 
the captive bird, in artificial cell over the 
swift-moving waters of a great river. Most, 
if not all, of those seemingly-fantastic 
modes of living had been suggested by the 
reading of, or the hearing about, the lives 
of the early “Desert Fathers” who in their 
eastern cells had really made a science of 
how they could torment their bodies in 
choosing places wherein they might take 
the rest that nature demanded but which 
they in their spiritual enthusiasm despised. 

More intelligible to us of the present 
day were the abodes chosen by religious 
enthusiasts who wished to combine solitary 
life with a moderate charity to not a few 
of their fellowmen. They built their cells and 
little oratories by the public highway or 
near to the banks of rivers in the vicinity 
of fords used by the traveler. Thus it was 
that the pilgrim of life was helped in dis¬ 
tress and succored in need but never at 
the expense of the spiritual duties of those 
men of God. We find nothing to wonder at 
in the hermitages built close to the 
churches and indeed communicating with 
them by means of little windows looking 
on the altars—this mode of living is just a 
little removed, at least in idea, from the 


14 


The Life of Saint Simon Stock 

prevailing custom of the clergy having 
their habitations adjoining, and in con-, 
junction with, the churches. At times we 
may wonder how a recluse could find his 
ideal of a solitary life in the confines of a 
churchyard situated in the very center of 
a populous neighborhood. Evidently in 
those years the difficulty, so apparent to us 
now, did not exist or perhaps was easily 
avoided. 

We may reasonably conclude that the 
Carmelite monks who came to England in 
the years that preceded the migration of 
the whole Order to Europe were influenced 
in the selection of an abode in the country 
to which they had come, by a twofold 
motive, namely, to follow in so far as pos¬ 
sible the mode of life once lived on Carmel 
and, at the same time, to adhere to the cus¬ 
toms prevailing in their new home or place 
of exile. Before the time of Saint Simon’s 
Generalship, there was not any other idea 
of religious life save that of the contem¬ 
plative amongst the Carmelites. We see 
that plainly demonstrated in the selection 
of the first Convents or monasteries by the 
Monks who came with the Crusaders. They 
chose places far away from the busy routes 
of men and buried themselves in the silent 


15 


The Life of Saint Simon Stock 

woods trying to find a second Carmel in the 
new land. Such, too, must have been the 
selections of the individual monks who 
preceded them. Secluded nooks on the 
mountain side or on the summit of some 
wooded hill and cells woven from the leafy- 
branches of the trees that grew in the 
retired sylvan glades were the temporary 
homes of those eastern visitors. Then, for 
greater security against the intercourse of 
men, they would bury themselves in the 
lofty human-nests that overhung the riv¬ 
ers—for they had heard of, if they had not 
actually seen, the myriad monks who had 
found a resting place in the cavernous 
sides of the Jordan, often where the banks 
rose highest and the water underneath ran 
swiftest. 


16 


The Cell of Saint Simon Stock 

I F, as some of the biographers of Saint 
Simon assert, he left his home and 
became a recluse at the early age of twelve 
years we may justly conclude that he had 
not formed any idea of the manner in 
which a Carmelite should choose a cell for 
his solitary life. It is not, however, un¬ 
likely that he had already fixed notions of 
the eremitical life and these may have been 
instilled into him by the teaching of one of 
those itinerant monks from the East. Most 
probably there was one or more of those 
holy men who were living their own pecu¬ 
liar life in the neighborhood of the home of 
the youthful and enthusiastic Simon. In 
this way he would be led on to the practice 
of a life to which he seemed to have been 
divinely called. 

Aware of the fact that many chosen souls 
were living far away from the haunts of 
men and in places that were calculated to 
add penance and mortification to the soli¬ 
tary life, it was very natural that Simon in 
his youth and enthusiasm should seek for 
some method of living that might not be 
less penitential than any of those of which 


17 


The Life of Saint Simon Stock 

he had heard or perhaps may have seen. 
His selection of an aged and much-decayed 
oak, the interior fibres of which had crum¬ 
bled away under the devastating hand of 
time, supplied for him a dwelling-place 
sufficiently solitary and likely to give him 
many opportunities of getting a practical 
knowledge of the much-desired “white 
martyrdom/’ 

Trees, quite suitable for the purposes 
intended by the youthful Simon, were to be 
found in many parts of England. Certainly 
in the fertile southern countries there must 
in those ages have been very many, just as 
we see them today. The lengthy years to 
which the oak survives and its power of 
resisting the ravages of time make it pecu¬ 
liarly liable to live on, whilst its trunk 
crumbles until only a circular bark-like 
coating keeps it from falling to the ground. 
In some countries the cavity thus formed 
is very spacious; in England one often finds 
room enough in the trunk of the oak to 
rest comfortably and it may serve as a kind 
of tiny oratory or praying-place. Never¬ 
theless, life continued for a long period in 
such a cell must have been very irksome. 
Naturally the open door-like space was 
always large enough to admit the winter’s 


18 


The Life of Saint Simon Stock 

cold and the summer’s heat with all the 
atmospheric inconveniences attendant on 
an English winter and an English summer. 
The choice of a tree-trunk cell, however 
remarkable in one of such tender years, 
was not a thing hitherto unheard of; 
indeed, it would be a rather difficult prob¬ 
lem to find a mode of living, as long as it 
was penitential and very irksome, to which 
some hermit or recluse had not recourse in 
his desire for a retreat adequate to his pre¬ 
conceived idea of getting closer to God and 
farther from man—to give the soul scope 
to expand and to thwart the appetites of 
the body. 

A retreat of this kind in one of the thick 
woody dales that then covered so much of 
the south of England was an ideal place to 
be alone with God. Remembering the rev¬ 
erence in which hermits and anchorites 
were held by the people in general and par¬ 
ticularly by the simple country folk who 
were most likely to be in the neighborhood 
of those places, Simon was quite safe from 
all worldly annoyances. The owners of 
places of retreat, in the years when Simon 
was a hermit in Kent, were far from dis¬ 
pleased to have their property used by holy 
men desirous of dedicating their lives to 


19 


The Life of Saint Simon Stock 

God. The presence of one called to so 
exalted a state was a guarantee that the 
public would respect the neighborhood in 
which the servant of God lived. It is not 
unlikely that the place chosen by St. Simon 
was in his own paternal property. 

Although thoroughly wedded to his 
sylvan retreat, there was no obstacle to 
Simon’s paying a visit to his own family, 
or some special friends, or some neighbor¬ 
ing hermit or recluse. The sincerity of the 
life was the best guarantee that any abuse 
in this way was not likely to occur, 
whereas, on the other hand, such visits 
were, at times, of obligation arising out of 
spiritual reasons. When the hermitage or 
the anchorage was too small to admit of 
the celebration of holy Mass then the 
servant of God had to make his way at the 
appointed times to the nearest church. We 
are also informed that from their rustic 
retreats went forth the hermit and the 
anchorite to preach “the kingdom of 
heaven” to the wayfarers or mayhaps to 
denounce some special prevailing sin of the 
times. Coming forth from their intimate 
converse with God, the fruit of their 
preaching was, at times, truly wonderful; 
and in those places, wherein the diocesan 


20 


The Life of Saint Simon Stock 

clergy and even the monks had failed to 
recall the erring children of the Church to 
repentance, they had remarkable success. 
People of all conditions in life wended their 
way to the rustic cells of those men to ask 
counsel in difficulties and to solicit spiritual 
aid in distress. Their influence was ex¬ 
traordinary with the rich and the poor, 
with the sinner and the saint. 


21 


The Family of Saint Simon Stock 


T HERE seems to be no doubt about the 
year of the birth of Saint Simon. All 
his reliable biographers are in agreement 
that he was born in the year of Our Lord, 
1166. We do not find the same harmony in 
the discussion as to the family to which he 
belonged. Some biographers have given 
him rich and wealthy parents reputed to be 
of noble lineage. In fact we read of the 
father of the Saint being a Count, or at 
least as one of the important nobles of 
the county in which Simon was born, hence 
the title sometimes written “Count of 
Kent” or as some prefer “Count of Canter¬ 
bury.” Others of his biographers mention 
merely that he belonged to “honest and 
good parents whose piety was well known.” 
The question is hardly worth discussing for 
the simple reason that it matters not who 
were the parents of the saint, our whole 
interest is centered in him alone; and, 
accepting the admonition of the Holy 
Scriptures “by their fruits ye shall know 
them,” we may at once conclude that they 
were God-fearing people who were cer¬ 
tainly noble in the eyes of their Creator 


22 


The Life of Saint Simon Stock 

whatever may have been the rank to which 
they belonged. It might be interesting, 
even though not instructive, to recall that 
Simon at an early age was called by God to 
a life of self-renunciation and prayer. This* 
would seem to indicate a certain amount of 
knowledge of the spiritual life not easily 
obtained in surroundings that were devoid 
of at least a mediocre learning and 
acquaintance with higher spirituality. We 
are, however, more impressed by the fact 
that, so young in years, he was allowed to 
go into a solitary hermitage and thus 
remain alone — far from all restraint 
and evidently without the recognized 
means of sustenance. One explanation at 
once occurs to us, namely, that he took up 
his solitary abode in his own paternal 
dominions where, although living a life of 
extraordinary piety and penance, he should 
still be under the eye of friends who could 
succor in time of need—if such were to 
occur. This interpretation would make his 
manner of life and his tender years quite 
intelligible and not so seemingly irrecon¬ 
cilable. In the Choir of the old Carmelite 
church of Bordeaux, dating from the thir¬ 
teenth century, there was a panel illustrat¬ 
ing one event in the life of Bordeaux' 


23 


The Life of Saint Simon Stock 

great Saint, namely, a miracle performed 
by Saint Simon when he was yet a recluse 
in his trunk-cell in Kent. The scene of the 
miracle is laid in the paternal home of the 
family—then in possession of the Saint’s 
brother. It is quite evident that Simon was 
able to visit his brother’s household and 
that his brother had still hopes of recalling 
him to what he conceived a saner life. The 
same miracle is mentioned in the Office of 
the Saint; not only in the oldest one we 
know of but even in the one at present 
recited on every Sixteenth of May. As we 
have to refer to this later on, we need not 
here delay to enlarge on its signification. 

Sometimes the name of a saint may give 
us an inkling as to his family and, not 
rarely, there are titles or descriptive 
adjuncts to the Christian name that supply 
information as to place of birth or family 
connection. Although from the very earli¬ 
est times Simon has added to his Christian 
name the epithet “Stock,” we can only 
infer from this that his mode of life was 
living in the trunk of a tree. Just as we 
read of another Simon named Stylites—a 
title given because of his peculiar mode of 
living on the summit of lofty pillars. The 
earliest extant life of our Saint is by 


24 


The Life of Saint Simon Stock 

John Grossi who was General of one part 
of the Order in the year 1389. This writer 
evidently copied his information from an 
old manuscript which he had found on his 
visit to England, hence the title or epithet 
“Stock” must have been known even in the 
lifetime of Saint Simon. It is utterly 
impossible that Grossi could have given 
that title to the Saint, for he was a French¬ 
man and the connection between the title 
“Stock” and the mode of living would never 
have occurred to him. He was, then, simply 
relating a fact which he found in the older 
author and, like a conscientious historian, 
he gave what he had found there. A 
recent writer, unaware of the fact that 
Grossi had been in England, gives quite a 
romantic touch to his life of the Saint 
which we have characterized as the oldest 
extant. The lives of the Saints do not profit 
by useless speculations. 

We must not omit to add that it was just 
at this particular time that family names 
were being supplied from occupations, or 
professions, or some peculiarity in the fam¬ 
ily or in the person. 

Nothing really definite is known about 
the parents of the Saint. We have in some 
old manuscripts the mention of a brother 


25 


The Life of Saint Simon Stock 


who seems to have continued to live the 
same manner of life as his parents and who 
was, according to some writers, occasion¬ 
ally visited by the Saint—even when he was 
yet sojourning in his trunk-cell. From the 
external evidence, some of which we have 
already mentioned, we do not consider it at 
all probable that his family was so poor 
that Simon, in his earliest days, was forced 
to beg from door to door. Doubtless he 
did at times seek the charity of the poor, 
but it was from the same motive that urged 
saints like Francis of Assisi to perform the 
similar acts of humiliation. 


26 


Simon in His Tree-Trunk Cell 


HP HE consensus of opinion amongst the 
X biographers of Simon is that he retired 
to his solitary cell at the age of twelve 
years; no doubt some would favor the age 
of fifteen, but the exact year is not of vital 
importance, for we must see in the selec¬ 
tion of such manner of life something more 
than the merely natural even though his 
biographers were found silent on the point. 
They are not, however. All seem inclined 
to the opinion that one so young had need 
of supernatural help to venture on this kind 
of life and to continue in the austerities of 
the rule he had proposed to himself. We 
must not suppose that Simon was a poor 
ignorant country-boy without education, 
having no real perception of the obligation 
incumbent on one who had taken upon 
himself the life of a solitary or recluse. 
Though we may concede that he belonged 
to the humbler class of the people, still we 
may feel quite certain that he knew well 
the nature of the life self-imposed. In 
those years, contrary to the prevalent ideas 
of later times, it was within the reach of 
even the children of the poor to obtain an 


27 


The Life of Saint Simon Stock 

education suitable to the wants of the age. 
The schools of the monks afforded ample 
opportunities to all who desired instruction, 
which was freely given without any idea of 
future recompense. One imbued with the 
ideas of the youthful Simon was not likely 
to omit an opportunity of gaining a means 
to realize more fully the promptings of his 
spiritual nature. We can, then, very easily 
accept the account of several of his biogra¬ 
phers that, even at the early age when he 
went into his hermit cell, he was in posses¬ 
sion of a certain grade of learning which 
doubtless he utilized in his new life and 
which he was sure to augment in his soli¬ 
tary hours. His subsequent career is the 
best guarantee that he knew the value of 
learning. 

It would be all in vain for us to try and 
follow Simon through his hours of medita¬ 
tion and contemplation in his rustic home. 
If we could, it would be a certain indication 
that we, too, were gifted with the same 
spirit. Unfortunately, to us living in the 
world and surrounded by its cares and its 
troubles it seems a mystery, although the 
fact is never doubted by the great body of 
the faithful that a soul, alone in the soli¬ 
tude of its cell, far removed from all human 


28 


The Life of Saint Simon Stock 

interests, can rest there with one only 
thought ever present to the mind; forgetful 
of all else; interested in that one thing 
alone—not for hours alone does it thus 
remain but for days and months and years. 

We may not doubt that the first years of 
Simon in his tree-trunk cell were passed 
principally in contemplation and medita¬ 
tion. The very idea that moved him to his 
peculiar mode of life must have been the 
result of profound thought and serious and 
prolonged cogitation illuminated by a 
divine light. When, then, he found himself 
free from the trammels of domestic life, he 
at once betook himself to this science of the 
saints wherein he learned the value of the 
things that pass in time and those that are. 
in eternity. It is a study that never cloys 
in the soul of the true friend of God. Days 
pass and nights are as if they were not, to 
one engaged in this wonderful work of inti¬ 
mate conversing with the Creator of all 
things. Worldly joys are mere air-bubbles, 
and earthly friendships are contemptible, 
when weighed in the balance with such 
spiritual delights and such ardent love. To 
the worldling the life of those chosen souls, 
like Simon Stock, is totally incomprehens¬ 
ible. The Scriptures well express the senti- 


29 


The Life of Saint Simon Stock 

ment fairly common amongst men—“We 
fools esteemed their life madness and their 
end without honor.” When it is too late, the 
truth shall come home to us—“Behold how 
they are numbered amongst the children of 
God, and their lot is amongst the saints.” 

So earnestly did the youthful Simon 
apply himself to this celestial science that 
he forgot the wants of the body and, were 
it not for a benign Providence, his wasted 
frame should have sunk under the weight 
of his neglect. Once in the day, we are 
informed by his pious biographers, a little 
dog came trotting to his cell bringing a 
scanty crust of bread. To quench his thirst 
a little water sprang out from the hard 
earth. Heaven seemed to begrudge any of 
those precious moments to anything save to 
its own self. No wonder that the devoted 
children of such a spiritual father have 
read into those days visions and spiritual 
consolations which seem to the worldling 
not only improbable but ridiculous. 

Father Philip of the Visitation, a Dis¬ 
eased Friar, who has written very inter¬ 
estingly of the Saint to whom he had a 
great devotion, tells us, without however 
mentioning his authority for the facts, 
that, at a very early age, Simon was wont 


30 


The Life of Saint Simon Stock 

to go in search of sanctuaries and shrines 
of the Blessed Virgin. If he found himself 
in any place where there was no memento 
of his heavenly Queen, then he would pro¬ 
cure a small effigy and erect it there, and, if 
that were impossible, then he contented 
himself with writing the name of “Mary” 
on the trees in the neighborhood. His great 
love for the Mother of God had made him a 
poet even at the early age of seven; and he 
was wont to break forth into sweetest num¬ 
bers when speaking about his Mother and 
Queen. This we can readily believe. We 
have some few examples of his poetic 
labors belonging to his later life. Accord¬ 
ing to the same good Father one of his con¬ 
stant themes was the Immaculate Concep¬ 
tion of the Mother of God—a treatise on 
this dogma has been attributed to him; 
however as it is not now extant we cannot 
judge of its authenticity. That he made a 
vow of perpetual chastity long before he 
became a Carmelite is very easily believed; 
it was not by any means an unusual vow 
in those years. It is even more easy to 
believe that on the death of his mother he 
chose “as a mother” his heavenly Queen. 

In his cell in the woods we may expect to 
hear that he had frequent visions of his 


31 


The Life of Saint Simon Stock 

heavenly Protectress and that She did not 
deny him counsel when he was in doubt or 
difficulties; and, moreover, that she came 
to cheer him in his lonely hours when his 
spirit was oppressed by the continued 
struggle and the prolonged penances. One 
of those visions is particularly interesting, 
for during it the Blessed Virgin revealed to 
him that in a few years should come to Eng¬ 
land the members of a religious Order spe¬ 
cially dedicated to her service and devotion. 
At the same time he was informed that 
these men were yet in Mount Carmel and 
that they bore the name of her “Brothers.” 
It was likewise revealed to him that he 
would be a professed member of that Order 
—whose full title was “Brothers of Our 
Blessed Virgin Mary of Mount Carmel.” 

Even after this vision Simon continued 
his solitary life. Occasionally he went forth 
to instruct and preach to the people, for he 
was now of an age that gave him a certain 
prestige for the missionary labor. We are 
told that his efforts were crowned with suc¬ 
cess and that men listened to him and 
obeyed his call to penance because his burn¬ 
ing words were the echo of a life for which 
they all had the greatest reverence. This 
account of his missionary work is in accord 


32 


The Life of Saint Simon Stock 

with facts we know of concerning other 
contemporary hermits and recluses. 
Amongst the Carmelites also it was the cus¬ 
tom for their recluses to go out at times to 
preach to the people. This custom continued 
until the days of the Venerable Thomas 
Scope Bradley (1391-1491) who renounced 
the Bishopric of Dromore to go into the 
hermit’s cell from which he occasionally 
went forth to instruct the faithful and to 
recall the sinner to repentance. Amongst 
the literary works attributed to Simon is a 
volume of Homilies to the people. It was in 
all probability during those years that he 
preached and wrote them. From the time 
he became a Carmelite his life was far too 
much occupied in the important and absorb¬ 
ing matters of the Order to attend to liter¬ 
ary work of his kind. 

If Simon had not met any of the exiled 
Carmelite monks from the Orient before 
his entrance into the eremitical life, he 
most assuredly came to know some of them 
in his peregrinations through the country¬ 
side when he went to preach and to cate¬ 
chise. Recognizing that his ministry should 
be far more efficacious if he had the 
dignity and the authority of the Priesthood, 
and, believing that it would be accordingly 


33 


The Life of Saint Simon Stock 

advantageous to him in his future, as a Car¬ 
melite monk, to be in Holy Orders, he pre¬ 
pared himself for the Priesthood, to which 
dignity he was raised by the Bishop of Win- 
ton, Peter des Roches, in his fortieth year. 
Although deeply engaged in his studies and 
his missionary work, Simon never once for¬ 
got his interior life to which he was pro¬ 
foundly attached and from which he drew 
the wonderful spiritual force that enabled 
him to overcome all difficulties and to pre¬ 
pare for the yet grander mission to which 
he had been specially called by his own 
beloved Queen and Mother. 


34 


Saint Simon’s First Miracle 

T HE whole life of Simon was replete 
with miracles according to his biog¬ 
raphers but they were always of a personal 
type and rarely had reference to anyone 
save himself. However, we read of one that 
deserved and received special notice. It 
must have occurred in the later years of 
the first missionary efforts of the Saint, 
that is to say, before he had left his rustic 
cell to go on his pilgrimage to Carmel. As 
we have already intimated this miracle 
forms the subject of an effective picture 
outlined on one of the wooden panels of the 
ancient Choir in the Convent wherein he 
died, namely, Bordeaux. It was still in the 
Choir when John Cheron was Prior of the 
Convent before the middle of the seven- 
teeth century. Unfortunately it did not 
resist the ravages of time and so gave way 
to something more lasting, but less interest¬ 
ing to those who treasure all that brings us 
in touch with the earliest days of the devo¬ 
tion to the Saint. It may have been that the 
event was too frivolous in the eyes of later 
generations to merit such a permanent 
reminder — at least in the estimation of 


35 


The Life of Saint Simon Stock 

some of the Brethren. In every age the 
faithful Christian believes that God can do 
all things; and the true Catholic knows that 
the real friends of God can, by His power, 
do many things that otherwise were impos¬ 
sible. Nevertheless, when it comes to an 
individual event of a miraculous nature 
there is a tendency to let the merely human 
element be sole judge. Often events that 
have a deep significance and a practical 
lesson assume small proportions and shrink 
into the absurd or the ridiculous, when 
viewed only in the light of the merely 
natural. 

There is a common feature in the lives 
whether of anchorite, hermit, or recluse,— 
one which recalls a similar feature in the 
life of the older monks namely, a great and 
abiding love for all God’s creatures. When 
we read of Francis of Assisi leading the 
ferocious bear from its wilds to the great 
Piazza of Gubbio in order that a compact 
may be made between it and the citizens, 
both of which had much to forgive and for¬ 
get, we do not want to question the improb¬ 
ability or the absurdity of the incident. We 
are content that it teaches a lesson suitable 
for every age of the world and for all peo¬ 
ples thereof. Another aspect of this crea- 


36 


The Life of Saint Simon Stock 

ture love is displayed in the legend of Iona. 
Columba, the saintly Abbot of the famous 
monastery, loved dearly not only all the 
brethren but also every creature that 
helped the brethren in their holy labors. An 
aged horse, that had served the monastery 
for years, instinctively aware that its last 
day was at hand, sought out the holy Abbot 
and, approaching him as he walked amidst 
his brethren in the fields, laid his shaggy 
head on Columba’s shoulder whilst two 
great tears rolled from his eyes and fell on 
the habit of the Abbot. The holy man, 
moved with a great love for the faithful 
servant of the monastery uttered a few 
kindly words which seemed to satisfy the 
aged animal that forthwith returned to its 
stable wherein the brethren found it dead 
on the following morning. It is evident that 
the root of all this love of animals is the 
fact that God made them; and these are the 
creatures of His Hand. 

During the later years of Simon’s life as 
a recluse in his trunk-cell, he was accus¬ 
tomed as we have already said to go avisit- 
ing those whom he could help spiritually 
and amongst them was his own brother. On 
such visits he never relaxed his severe man¬ 
ner of life and his only food was of a vege- 


37 


The Life of Saint Simon Stock 

table kind; for not only had he relinquished 
all flesh meats but he even would not allow 
himself the poor luxury of fish meat. On 
one of these occasions his brother who must 
have been well aware of his rigorous absti¬ 
nence from all such foods, prepared for the 
repast to which Simon had been invited 
some very enticing cooked fish. Narrators 
do not agree as to the motive of this action 
on the part of his brother. Some say it was 
because he did not believe in the austere life 
of the solitary; others that it was a tempta¬ 
tion specially intended to try the strength 
of Simon's vocation; other some, more char¬ 
itably, assert it was because his brother had 
no other food and wished to celebrate the 
advent of such an honored guest to the 
paternal homestead. Whatever may have 
been the motive, Simon was determined to 
teach them all a lesson. He took the dish 
containing the fish laid before him for his 
portion, went to the stream close by the 
door of the fraternal mansion and, murmur¬ 
ing a prayer, gently placed the cooked fish 
in the running waters. Lo! before the eyes 
of the whole household the fish came back 
to life and straightway began to swim in 
the waters. It is quite true that the occa¬ 
sion does not seem to merit such a special 


38 


The Life of Saint Simon Stock 

interposition of Providence but of this we 
are not the judges. We must leave to the 
Saint, himself, the right to declare the rela¬ 
tionship between the event and the reason 
of it. 

The miracle is important to illustrate the 
nature of the austere life of Simon since it 
is not at all improbable that he continued 
this restriction in food all through his 
religious life. If so, he must have led a life 
of great mortification because the only food 
allowed to the early Carmelite monks was 
vegetable and fish. All kinds of flesh meat 
were prohibited until the Rule was miti¬ 
gated by the Pope. This gives us a slight 
insight into the character of Simon Stock. 

Doubtless this occurrence has made an 
impression on the early biographers of the 
Saint for the simple reason that being 
deprived of fish seemed to them a test of 
real mortification. Their first monastery in 
the south of England was built on the banks 
of the river Medway and from the waters 
thereof the monks obtained their daily sus¬ 
tenance. It is evident why this event should 
be recalled by the pious writers amongst 
the Carmelites and why it, above all the 
other extraordinary occurrences in the 
early life of Simon, should find a record and 


39 


The Life of Saint Simon Stock 

a lively memory. The same reason might 
account for the other strange legends told 
of him in reference to his tender love of 
fish-life. We are informed that he could 
draw the fish from the Thames and place 
them once more in the water—they hark¬ 
ened to his voice and obeyed his call. It was 
a matter noted by all how docile became 
those denizens of the waters in the pres¬ 
ence of the servant of God. One cannot 
refrain from recalling that incident in the 
life of the great wonder-worker, Saint An¬ 
thony,—it is a pleasing and an instructive 
legend; when he could not prevail on men 
and women to listen to his praises of God, 
he stood by the sea-shore and called the fish 
from their submarine haunts to harken to 
his paean of praise and lo! shoals of the finny 
creatures came alongside the water’s limit, 
and, arranging themselves in order of size, 
remained there until the Saint had finished 
his sermon and imparted to them his bless¬ 
ing. We must confess that we hesitate to 
accept the further legend told of the Blessed 
Simon, namely, that when the Fathers were 
assembled for one of their Provincial Coun¬ 
cils in the London monastery and had noth¬ 
ing to eat, he went forth to the river 
Thames and, exercising over the fish that 


40 


The Life of Saint Simon Stock 

extraordinary power possessed by him, he 
drew forth with his own hands such num¬ 
bers that the Fathers had quite sufficient to 
make a meal for all in the Convent. Just as 
the former story is in harmony with our 
idea of Simon we believe this undue advan¬ 
tage over the fish for the purpose indicated 
is quite foreign to every trait in the char¬ 
acter of the kindly solitary, even though 
fraternal charity seemed to be the motive. 


41 


Our Lady’s Prophecy Realized in His 
Vocation 

T HE biographers are not agreed on the 
length of time Simon spent, as a proba¬ 
tionary period, in his cell m the trunk of 
the tree. Some have accepted the number 
of years as twelve; others at fifteen; the 
greater number, and we believe more cor¬ 
rectly, have given twenty years as the time 
for his solitary life in Kent. 

It is not clear to us whether he, at the end 
of that probationary period, had met some 
of the emigrant monks, who were coming 
to England at the time owing to the grow¬ 
ing difficulties in living peacefully their 
religious life in the East, and from these 
learned all about Carmel, its history, and the 
life of the monks who lived thereon. Then, 
that recognizing the Order foretold him, he 
had become a novice under the directions of 
those exiles, or whether he took the vow as 
was the custom to go to the Holy Places 
and, having arrived in Palestine, sought out 
the monks and, there, on Carmel itself made 
his religious profession. We prefer to think 
that he went in pilgrimage to visit the Holy 
Places and, having accomplished that desire 


42 


The Life of Saint Simon Stock 

so dear to every recluse and hermit, he pre¬ 
sented himself to the Superiors of the 
monks on Carmel, who in all probability 
had already heard of his life and of his 
sanctity, and so had no difficulty in admit¬ 
ting him to his period of probation antece¬ 
dent to profession. In so far as we know, 
there was no place in England for the novi¬ 
tiate of Carmelite candidates. This would 
presuppose the presence of at least a small 
body of religious and also opportunities of 
trying the vocation of those presenting 
themselves for admission into the ranks of 
the monks. No doubt in the year 1241, or 
about that period, there was a regularly 
formed Community—such as it was—but 
we are quite sure that long before that time 
Simon had taken his vows as a fully-fledged 
Carmelite; otherwise his sudden elevation 
to power in the Order should be inexplic¬ 
able. 

It must have been soon after his ordina¬ 
tion to the Priesthood that he made his first 
journey to Palestine, that is to say, some¬ 
time after his fortieth year. The Venerable 
Thomas Bradley informs us that in the year 
1212 Simon abandoned his rustic cell and 
made his profession in a recently-arrived 
community from the East that had then 


43 


The Life of Saint Simon Stock 

settled in Kent—close by the place where 
stands the present ruined monastery which 
of course was built many years afterwards. 
We mention this testimony because of the 
author who has written it, recognizing his 
worth as a Carmelite historian, even though 
it does not seem so probable to us. No 
doubt sufficiently large communities of the 
monks had already settled in other parts of 
Europe before, and about, these years. All 
England was in a ferment at this time for 
these were the years that preceded the 
King’s having to concede to the people the 
famous Magna Charta. The presence of 
holy men who had great influence over the 
people was very necessary owing to the dis¬ 
turbed state of the realm and the dangers 
to religious discipline. 

Saint Berthold died on the second of Sep¬ 
tember in the year 1213 and to him suc¬ 
ceeded, as General of the whole Order, the 
Blessed Alanus who remained in that office 
until the chapter in which Simon Stock was 
chosen in his place. There seems to be no 
doubt that owing to the increased number 
of monks that had passed into Europe from 
the East there arose the necessity of having 
a Superior over the monks in the Western 
parts with the same jurisdiction as Alanus 


44 


The Life of Saint Simon Stock 

held over all the Order in both East and 
West. This office was allotted to Simon 
Stock who evidently was well known to the 
various Priors of the Order in both parts. 
He was consequently a kind of Assistant- 
General or rather Commissary-General of 
the Order in Europe. The inference, then, 
that he spent quite a number of years in the 
East and particularly on Carmel is not only 
very natural but is a necessary deduction. 
During all those years on Carmel and in 
the East there was a galaxy of men noted 
for their zeal in Religion and for their 
learning as well as for their administrative 
powers, nevertheless, the man chosen for 
the government of the Order in the West 
and for the delicate embassies to Popes and 
Princes is Simon Stock—this gives us some 
idea of the worth of the man and how 
profitably he must have spent his time in 
the tree-trunk cell in Kent; it makes the 
story of his years in the University of Cam¬ 
bridge more than a mere conjecture. Some 
of his admiring biographers have assured 
us he took not only his Bachelor’s degree 
but that, on the insistence of the University 
authorities, he received his Master’s degree. 
The zeal afterwards shown by Simon in the 
cause of the education of the youthful Car- 


45 


The Life of Saint Simon Stock 

melites reveals the mind of one who knew 
from personal experience the value of 
learning. 

We do not know how long Simon re¬ 
mained in the Holy Land on his first visit. 
We are inclined to think the time must have 
extended over several years. The life on 
Carmel was one very congenial to him, for 
it recalled the happy days in the tree-cell in 
Kent. Once again, we are informed of the 
care Providence took of its favorite son. 
Simon remained in his cell on Carmel so 
persistently that he began to forget all the 
wants of his body, hence, as of old, a kindly 
Providence attended to his needs. The birds 
of the air, this time, were the good Samari¬ 
tans who daily brought him his scanty 
allowance, just as in the days of Elias the 
ravens had succoured the hidden Prophet. 
His rare conversations were with men who 
were veritable giants in the spiritual life; 
men who had left all and crossed the seas to 
be in the shadow of a mount sacred to so 
many memories; men whose burning words 
recalled the Prophet of Fire. Rare, indeed, 
must needs be those conversations on silent 
Carmel but golden every one of them. And 
then those hours of contemplation during 
which he saw the wondrous sights on which 


46 


The Life of Saint Simon Stock 

mortal eye never rests and yet are plainer, 
clearer, and more acceptable to view than 
anything imagination ever pictured. There, 
upon Carmel, he renews his intimate con¬ 
verse with his heavenly Queen; the threads 
of friendship first woven in the rustic cell 
of Kent are made firmer and rendered more 
beautiful by frequent visions and often con¬ 
verse. 

Here it was that Simon stored up the 
mighty spiritual forces with which he was 
to conquer Europe for the “Brothers of the 
Blessed Mary of Mount Carmel.” Viewed 
from a merely human standpoint the mis¬ 
sion of Simon was an impossible one, but 
standing in imagination at the door of his 
cell on Mount Carmel and visualizing the 
man and his surroundings, recalling his life 
and its motive power of inspiration and 
hope, the subsequent history of Simon and 
the Order to which he belonged appears as 
an inevitable consequence. Certainly the 
workings of a benign Providence may be 
easily noted. 

On his return to Europe he at once set 
about the adjusting of his Order to its new 
surroundings. We have no doubt that he 
was one of the effective instruments in 
obtaining the approbation of the Rule from 


47 


The Life of Saint Simon Stock 

Honorius III. Even before the great body 
of the monks had left Carmel, there fol¬ 
lowed other Papal enactments in favor of 
the Order. These latter, three in number, 
related to the internal government of the 
growing Order and were granted by Greg¬ 
ory IX. We may not stop to recount the 
extraordinary occurrence that heralded the 
approbation from the Pope although it has 
been recalled in the Annals of Carmel and 
has found a memory in the Divine Office. 
We must, however, dissent from the more 
common opinion of the older writers 
amongst the Carmelites, namely, that the 
Solemn Commemoration of Our Blessed 
Lady of Mount Carmel takes origin from 
that event. There is, however, more to be 
said in favor of its claim to the institution 
of the feast than the supposed occasion 
excogitated by Father Zimmerman. As a 
matter of fact Simon had not only a part in 
the event which determined the institution 
of that important feast, but he was the 
leading human agency. The true origin of 
the feast shall find a place later in our nar¬ 
rative. 

Simon seems to have passed back and 
forth to the Holy Land several times. On 
one occasion he was the companion of the 


48 


The Life of Saint Simon Stock 

Blessed Jordan, General of the Dominic¬ 
ans—a worthy successor to the zealous 
Dominic—who, on his return journey, was 
shipwrecked and lost his life. So strong 
was the bond of friendship between them 
that Simon was able to console the Brethren 
of the Blessed Jordan by confidently assert¬ 
ing that he was in bliss enjoying the vision 
of God. The holy man, a short time after 
his death, had appeared to him and told 
him of his eternal happiness—the reward 
of his life of piety, prayer and zeal. 

Owing to the prestige that Simon had 
acquired in the principal countries of 
Europe, and because of his position as rep¬ 
resentative of the General of the Order in 
the West, his presence was necessary at the 
imnortant General Chapter on Mount Car¬ 
mel in the year 1237. In that chapter was de¬ 
cided the migration of the Fathers; at least 
as many as could make their way to the 
West had full permission to leave the sacred 
Mount and also the monasteries in Eastern 
regions. It was no longer safe for the 
Brethren to live their religious life in the 
Holy Land; because the persecution of the 
Saracens had become intolerable. From 
time to time they were forced to seek 
shelter and safety in the walled and 


49 


The Life of Saint Simon Stock 

guarded cities, hence the regular observ¬ 
ance of their religious exercises became im¬ 
possible. Some of the Brethren betook 
themselves to the island of Cyprus, the 
nearest place of safety to their beloved 
Carmel; some continued their voyage to 
Sicily and Italy; some, journeying still far¬ 
ther towards the Western shores, sought 
places for erecting monasteries in their 
native lands. There they were more likely 
to find a welcome as well as more favorable 
opportunity to lay the foundation for 
future Carmels amongst those whom they 
knew. This exodus was a kind of fore¬ 
shadowing of the things that were to come 
on Carmel in the East. It was a warning to 
prepare the monks for the evil day, not so 
very far distant, when fire and sword would 
sweep the glory from Carmel and the voices 
of the faithful Brethren, who lived on until 
the very last in the sacred cradleland of 
their Order, were hushed to silence by mar¬ 
tyrdom. No wonder then that the chron¬ 
icler tells us that during the Chapter, whilst 
the Fathers were assembled in the principal 
Church dedicated to Mary the Queen of 
Carmel, She, herself, appeared in their 
midst and spoke words of hope and courage 
and foretold to them, unwilling exiles, a 


50 


The Life of Saint Simon Stock 

glorious future for the Order in lands be¬ 
yond the seas. 

Not a few of the Brethren elected to re¬ 
main on in the East—though the only thing 
that seemed certain was death. Amongst 
them, we are told, was Simon. If he re¬ 
mained on Carmel after the close of the 
Chapter, it was only for a brief period and 
not at all for the length of time mentioned 
by some of his biographers. The necessity 
of his presence was too great, too urgent, in 
the West because of the many monks who 
had gone there; because of the many 
foundations to be made there; because of 
the myriad difficulties sure to be encount¬ 
ered by those men who, unaccustomed to 
Western life, knew only of the calm and 
quiet of their beloved Carmel, Simon had 
already experienced the obstacles likely to 
beset the way of those newcomers. Already 
he had shown himself a man of action 
though he never lost the relish for the life 
of the recluse. Already he had successfully 
treated with Popes and Princes and Nobles. 
In the present state of affairs Carmel in the 
West had need of a strong hand to guide its 
way to victory—this was found in Simon. 

In the first half of the decade of years 
that followed the migration of the Carmel- 


51 


The Life of Saint Simon Stock 

ites into Europe, their chief difficulties 
were to find hermitages that should serve 
as retreats wherein they could live accord¬ 
ing to the Rule given them on Carmel. The 
clergy and the lay folk looked upon them as 
unwilling exiles from a distant land and 
thus gave them all the pity and charity 
meted out to those in such misery. Then 
again they had sought retreats sufficiently 
removed from the centers of population 
and even of ordinary traffic, and in this 
way there was no reason for the parochial 
clergy to bear them any jealousy because 
of their influence with the people. Thus it 
was that, until Simon was elected to the 
Generalship, he had to encounter only the 
problems that his good practical sense 
easily solved. 

The progress made by the Brethren in 
England added to the presence of the Com¬ 
missary-General pointed out that land as 
the place of the next General Chapter, 
since all hope of continuing those meetings 
on the holy Mount was out of the question 
because of the disturbed state of affairs in 
the East. 

An event now occurred to hasten the 
assembling of the Fathers from the various 
parts of the world. The period of forma- 


52 


The Life of Saint Simon Stock 

tion in regard to the communities that had 
recently passed into Europe was on the 
point of closing and, under the guidance of 
Simon, a movement was soon to be initiated 
for extending the membership of the Order 
and, consequently, for facing the neces¬ 
sity of new foundations. This, the practi¬ 
cal Superior of the Western countries well 
knew, should entail opposition and much 
questionings. It was imperative then that 
the monks should be ready to produce their 
credentials. The news that was brought to 
them in their Retreats, namely, that the 
Holy Father was in France and had an¬ 
nounced his intention of holding a General 
Council of the Church in the year follow¬ 
ing, suggested to them immediate action. 
This information came to them in the later 
days of December of the year 1244, so that 
the Council was to be summoned the middle 
of the year 1245. The presence of the Holy 
Father in France made approach to his 
person an easy matter. There was also the 
hope that the Oecumenical Council would 
declare the status of the Order. 

The Fathers who had the right to be 
summoned to the General Chapter had 
received a hurried notice but they all knew 
the reason for and recognized the necessity 


53 


The Life of Saint Simon Stock 

of the meeting. It was the first western 
Chapter and its chief business was to elect 
a new General, for Alanus had intimated 
his intention not to undertake the office 
again; and, secondly, to nominate worthy 
Fathers to represent the Order at Lyons, 
where the first session of the General 
Council was to take place on June the 
twenty-eighth of the same year and then 
last, though not least, it was the duty of the 
assembled Brethren to formulate their 
petitions and to prepare all the information 
to be presented to the Holy Father, Inno¬ 
cent IV, and, if necessary or advisable, to 
the General Council itself. The Chapter 
was held at the monastery of Aylesford in 
Kent, then the largest and the most com¬ 
modious in England. This Convent had 
been built after the manner of the cells on 
Carmel—separate cells all opening out into 
a common quadrangle. The declared inten¬ 
tion of Alanus not to seek re-election left 
only one pre-eminent candidate for the 
important office, so that the Fathers unani¬ 
mously voted for Saint Simon. Then, and 
in the years immediately following, there 
were men in the Order of great intellectual 
talents and of equally great administrative 
abilities but Simon Stock stood alone in 


The Life of Saint Simon Stock 

sanctity of life and business capacity com¬ 
bined. No other had done for Carmel what 
he had accomplished; no other was so 
fitted for the long and weary struggle to be 
endured by the monks of Carmel before 
they had reached the fame which they 
richly deserved in the two centuries that 
followed. 

The two Fathers chosen to represent the 
Order at Lyons were Reginald and Peter of 
Folsham. They brought with them the 
ancient Rule and the Papal approbation 
already given. They had their business 
transacted before the first session of the 
General Council took place, for the date 
attached to the Constitution of Innocent is 
the sixth day before the Ides of June. Two 
other Constitutions were granted to the 
Carmelites—all before the first session of 
the General Council had been held. 

In the three Constitutions given by 
Innocent IV the Carmelites had all that 
then was necessary for their future 
progress. The Holy Father had confirmed 
the privileges given by his predecessor and 
had again given his own approbation to the 
Rule of Honorius. Furthermore he had 
taken the Carmelites under the protection 
of the Holy See and once more affirmed 


55 


The Life of Saint Simon Stock 

their privilege to celebrate Mass and to 
hold their offices even during the time of 
Interdict—a very valuable privilege in such 
troublous times when constant conflicts 
with the Holy See were taking place in 
several of the countries of Europe. Finally, 
and this was a sign of the intention of the 
Carmelites to extend their Order, not only 
was permission given them to seek alms but 
an indulgence was given to those who were 
generous to them. 

There is not the shadow of doubt that all 
this forevision of the credentials to success 
came from the active practical mind of 
Simon. 

What has escaped the notice of the biog¬ 
raphers of the Saint as well as the recent 
historians of the Order is the painful fact 
that from the election of Simon until the 
last of the Carmelite exiles passed to his 
eternal reward, there were two parties in 
the ranks of the Carmelites. One was 
formed of the men who had been on Carmel 
and who were ever dreaming of a return 
to the strict observance and the solitary 
life characteristic of the holy Mount. 
Alanus had resigned his office because he 
could not reconcile the life in the West 
with his ideas—already matured on Car- 


56 


The Life of Saint Simon Stock 

mel. Years afterwards the successor of 
Simon Stock renounced his Generalship in 
high indignation because of the worldly 
life, as he considered it, amongst the new 
generation of Carmelites. The Ignea 
Sagitta of Nicholas the Gaul tells its own 
tale. There seemed ever to be in the minds 
of many of the Carmelites—that Provi¬ 
dence intended them to return once more 
to their cradleland; even the terrible mas¬ 
sacre of the monks in the last decade of the 
years of the thirteenth century did not 
dispel this pious belief. Indeed we are not 
too certain that this same idea, in a more 
modified form, does not still live on in the 
minds of some of the more perfervid Car¬ 
melites. 

On the other hand Simon,' though his 
heart was still hankering after the tran¬ 
quil hours spent in the tree-cell in Kent and 
in the cave on Carmel, recognized the inev¬ 
itable and made his plans so that those 
committed to his care should be equipped 
with all the means for doing God's Holy 
Will in their present circumstances. To 
break away from his old notions of solitary 
life, and to face the mountainous difficul¬ 
ties sure to be encountered in the new way 
of living, required more than human cour- 


57 


The Life of Saint Simon Stock 

age; hence we believe that Simon had the 
special guidance of the Queen of Carmel to 
whom he was so devoted, and for the 
extending of whose devotion he was labor¬ 
ing. The combination of the contemplative 
and the active life was a dangerous experi¬ 
ment for a whole Order instituted for the 
former alone, but, in it, Simon detected a 
surer way to spread devotion to God’s 
Mother—this was his hope and consolation 
and the future years show how well- 
founded was that hope and how genuine 
was that consolation. 

It is worthy of note that even Simon, 
profoundly interested as he must have been 
in Western affairs, turned his attention in 
his ending years to the beloved Carmel. In 
the year 1261 he obtains from the Holy 
Father a special indulgence for those 
visiting the Carmelite churches in the East; 
and, later still, the Patriarch of Jerusalem 
is exhorted by the Pope to remove the 
obstacles placed by the Bishop of Accon 
against the Carmelites having their church 
and cemetery with all their privileges in 
his Diocese; the Bishop is not to molest or 
allow the monks to be molested. One of 
his last petitions to the Holy See seems to 
have been to present a supplication to the 


58 


The Life of Saint Simon Stock 

Holy Father for an indulgence of one hun¬ 
dred days to all the faithful who contribute 
to the new monastery and church to be 
built on Mount Carmel. Thus it was that 
his old love for Carmel and its silent caves 
had an awakening in the shadows of his 
coming end. 

From the year 1245, a new life was in¬ 
fused into the Carmelite Order in Europe. 
It was no longer a question of seeking 
homes for the exiled monks from the East. 
There was the larger problem of develop¬ 
ment along lines which, while ensuring 
success, would create the least possible 
friction from the local clergy and from the 
new Mendicant Orders now in their prime. 

In the Constitutions that came to the 
Carmelites from the Papal Court it is evi¬ 
dent that Simon had determined that the 
Order in Europe should figure in the eccle¬ 
siastical world as a Mendicant one and that 
its internal government should be on the 
same lines as that of the Dominicans and 
Franciscans. In the year 1247 several conces¬ 
sions were obtained from Rome that show 
the trend of the hoped-for future progress. 
The order is commended to Archbishops 
and Bishops with the injunction that they 
were to receive the Carmelites benignly. 


59 


The Life of Saint Simon Stock 

The Holy Father to ensure the realization 
of this precept takes the Order under his 
special protection conceding to it those 
privileges in the time of Interdict which 
the other Orders already have. To suit the 
altered state of affairs—to accommodate 
the Rule to the new climate and the new 
manner of life, certain mitigations are 
given although at the same time the Rule 
already approved by Honorius is again 
approved and confirmed by the Holy 
Father, Innocent IV. During Simon’s term 
of office, that is to say, until his death, it 
seems to have been his care to have each 
Pope as soon as possible after his election 
approve the Rule already existing and to 
confirm the same. In addition to Innocent 
IV. the other Popes who granted this favor 
to Simon were Alexander IV., Urban IV., 
and Clement IV. The mitigation of the Rule 
may have been a source of trouble to him 
owing to the fervor of Carmel still animat¬ 
ing many of the exiles who were certain to 
oppose any relaxation in their ancient mode 
of living. 

Simon from his past experience knew the 
necessity of having Religious sufficiently 
learned to fulfil rightly all the duties of 
their state in life. Principal amongst those 


60 


The Life of Saint Simon Stock 

duties, since they had come to the West, 
was the instructing of the faithful; then 
also attention to the education of their own 
students, consequently he sent his younger 
Religious to the University Schools. At 
once we see breaking into the religious life 
of the Carmelites some of the evil customs 
then prevalent amongst young men gath¬ 
ered together from all parts of the world 
and living the free life peculiar to the time 
—even the young Religious became involved 
in those faction squabbles. In 1254 we have 
the first application for permission to ab¬ 
solve his Religious from the censure in¬ 
curred by striking one already inscribed in 
the clerical state. Also we observe that 
some of the students who were attending 
the Universities must have been attracted 
to the Order and, hence, the necessity of 
having Papal permission to absolve from 
censures those who wish to take the habit. 

The nearer approach to the mode of gov¬ 
ernment of the Mendicant Orders is seen in 
the Constitution of Alexander allowing the 
General and the Provincials the right of 
visitating the monasteries and also that of 
changing from place to place the members 
of the Order as well as the power of cor¬ 
recting them in a canonical manner; nov- 


61 


The Life of Saint Simon Stock 

ices are to be received in the same manner 
as with the Mendicants. The Holy Father 
has also allowed the Carmelites to quest 
for their sustenance and he exhorts the 
Archbishops and the Bishops not to molest 
them in the exercise of this privilege; as a 
co-relative to this he requests the faithful 
to be generous to the Religious when they 
are soliciting alms. In a word Simon had 
now brought his Order to the same level as 
the two important Mendicant Orders. 

The progress made by the Carmelites 
was as usual accompanied by the opposition 
of those who believed themselves injured 
by their privileges. Since the Carmelites 
were no longer confined to their cells, or 
rather to their monasteries, they were sure 
to come into collision with those who were 
already depending on the charity of the 
people. Very naturally the local clergy 
were the principal sufferers and it, conse¬ 
quently, came to pass that the Archbishops 
and the Bishops were forced to take sides 
on behalf of their own diocesan clergy, 
hence, we see the often repeated admoni¬ 
tion coming from the Holy See that the 
Carmelites were not to be molested in their 
rightful privileges. For the first five years 
of the Generalship of Simon this opposition 


62 


The Life of Saint Simon Stock 

grew stronger daily—until finally even the 
spirit of Simon was bowed down almost in 
despair. 

Thus it was that Simon found himself 
surrounded by a host of difficulties both 
from within the Order and from without. 
He had the strong opposition of those of 
the Brethren who still opposed the mitiga¬ 
tions and the attempts of the General to 
make the monks Mendicant Friars. Wher¬ 
ever the Brethren had not a monastery 
fully built and equipped for the mainte¬ 
nance of the Religious then the fact that 
they had to seek alms brought them into 
contact with the ecclesiastical powers out¬ 
side their temporary dwellings and under 
whose jurisdiction they were at least to a 
certain extent; in quite a number of places 
they had not begun to build the large mon¬ 
asteries that afterwards arose in those 
same neighborhoods. Then there was the 
difficulty of getting novices—the Order 
having so little to attract the youth of the 
time. The peculiar religious dress of the 
Carmelites did not appeal to the western 
ideas; neither did the mode of living of 
many of the monks, who, as we have 
already remarked, insisted on the Eastern 
Observance, and had no intention of avail- 


63 


The Life of Saint Simon Stock 

ing themselves of the Papal mitigations. 
The movement for the change of the 
“striped” or “barred cloak,” as it was 
named, for the all-white mantle of the sub¬ 
sequent time had already begun and with 
the sanction of Simon; but this was too 
serious a matter to accomplish successfully 
for the present. It was sure to be opposed 
by many of the Brethren who had become 
attached to the cloak they had brought 
from Carmel; then there was the opposition 
of those other Orders whose religious dress 
was akin to the one proposed by the reform¬ 
ers. An event occurred in the year 1251 
which was destined not only to solve the 
two great problems that then occupied the 
mind of Simon, but was destined to have a 
world-wide effect on the faithful. 

In that year, namely in 1251, Simon was 
visiting the new monastery situated at 
Newenham near Cambridge so that the stu¬ 
dents should be in fairly close touch with 
the University which they were frequent¬ 
ing. It was in the Generalship of Simon 
that the Brethren had already moved from 
Chesterton to Newenham. They still re¬ 
tained the old mode of living, for we are 
told “they made many cells, a church, a 
cloister, a dormitory, and the necessary 


64 


The Life of Saint Simon Stock 

office sufficiently constructed/’ It was in 
one of these very cells that Simon, now far 
advanced in years, was living, bent down 
under the weight of so many and so heavy 
burdens. Recognizing the futility of all 
mortal aid in the struggle he had recourse 
to the one true friend of his life—from the 
years when he held converse with her in 
the tree cell in Kent until old age and 
trouble were overwhelming him. 

He prayed from evening-fall until the 
dawn of the following day. He besought 
his Queen Mother to help the Order to 
which she had given her name and to which 
she had called him from his rustic cell. If 
she were to refuse her help, then the last 
days for Carmel in the West had come. His 
ancient custom of saluting her in poetic 
numbers came back to him and, from his 
anxious heart, he poured forth that hymn 
now so well known to every lover of the 
Scapular “Flos Carmeli.” Suddenly the 
little cell was illumined by a wondrous 
light and lo! there appeared to him the 
Mother of God surrounded by hosts of 
angels. She held in her hand a Scapular 
and giving it to the astounded Simon she 
said—“This is a sign to you and to all Car¬ 
melites that whoever dies wearing this 


65 


The Life of Saint Simon Stock 

Scapular shall never see eternal fire.” She 
then disappeared leaving* the aged General 
full of consolation and courage. 

As inspired by the Blessed Virgin in the 
vision, Simon sent two of the Fathers to the 
Pope who, having heard the story of the 
messengers, issued a Constitution, in Jan¬ 
uary, 1252, exhorting the Prelates every¬ 
where to treat charitably and benignly the 
Carmelites and, if the ecclesiastics still per¬ 
sisted in molesting them, they were to be 
proceeded against by ecclesiastical cen¬ 
sures. In September of the year of the 
vision the Holy Father had taken the Order 
and all belonging to it under the protection 
of the Holy See but that did not seem 
enough, so he then proceeded to strike at 
the root of the miserable conditions in 
which the Carmelites found themselves. 
Before the September of 1254 we have no 
less than four other Papal Constitutions in 
favor of the Carmelites. There was no 
longer reason to doubt the efficacy of the 
intercession of God's Mother. 

Then occurred to Simon the idea that the 
time had come for a change in the principal 
religious habit of the Carmelites in the 
West. Not at once but in the near future, 
the obstacle that made many of the western 


66 


The Life of Saint Simon Stock 

youth fight shy of the Carmelite Order, 
should be removed, that is to say the barred 
mantle. He argued rightly that, in the 
course of time, the Scapular would be rec¬ 
ognized by all as the habit of the Order, 
hence, the mantle should then fall into a 
secondary place in the importance of the 
Friars and the faithful generally. As a 
matter of fact, twenty years after Simon 
was laid in his tomb the Fathers in a Gen¬ 
eral Chapter declared the putting aside of 
the “striped” or “barred mantle” because, 
they said, “the Scapular was the habit of 
the Friars.” 

Amongst the faithful the well-being of 
the Carmelite Order had become, for many 
of them, a really personal affair by reason 
of the Confraternity formed by Simon and 
his Brethren to foster the devotion of the 
Scapular. When the people learned of the 
promise given by the Blessed Virgin to all 
who wore the habit given to Simon, all 
those who knew the Carmelites, and espe¬ 
cially those who lived near to their monas¬ 
teries or hermitages, eagerly desired to 
wear it. In this way a body of men and 
women arose who were bound together in a 
kind of religious fraternity under the guid¬ 
ance of one of the Friars. It is very reason- 


67 


The Life of Saint Simon Stock 

able to expect that such associations par¬ 
took of the nature of the Guilds then so well 
known, hence, we find in their records 
accounts of works of mercy and of charity 
obligatory on the members—but the real 
bond of union was the Scapular just as the 
full habit was in the case of the Friar. 

Many of the nobles wore the Scapular 
and consequently were members of the 
Confraternity. In the University centers 
the students and the Professors seem to 
have been active members of those religious 
associations. It was from the meetings of 
those members that the idea, if not the 
necessity, of a special feast day arose, for 
they had their special chapels in the 
churches, as well as having their special 
meeting-places. The influence of many 
wearers of the Scapular, whose names are 
well known to us from old records, was 
very great as well in civil life as also in 
ecclesiastical, so that the next step, namely 
to the right to celebrate a special feast for 
the members was an easy one. This was 
the real origin of the feast known to us to¬ 
day as the Solemn Commemoration of Our 
Blessed Lady of Mount Carmel. We need 
not say that in the beginning its appear¬ 
ance was rather humble—as became the 


68 


The Life of Saint Simon Stock 

association, but gradually it spread and 
became more and more popular. It is quite 
evident that the feast was first celebrated 
in England whence it gradually spread over 
the other Carmelite Provinces until in the 
years following, it became a feast of the 
Universal Church, as it is to-day. 

From the year 1251 the fortunes of the 
Carmelites improved very much and, al¬ 
though all obstacles did not disappear, 
nevertheless they received an impetus that 
ceased not for three hundred years. During 
the decade following the Scapular vision 
Simon was engaged in the work of securing 
the older foundations and preparing a new 
generation of Carmelites. It was in those 
years that the Carmelites were given the 
places wherein they, in a few years after¬ 
wards, were able to raise up the large and 
commodious monasteries of which we have 
some of the historical records and which re¬ 
mained in all their vigor and strength until 
the reformation times when they were 
totally destroyed or pillaged and given 
over to seculars. The five or six years that 
passed after the giving of the Scapular 
were the most important years in the life 
of the Saint for it was then that he laid the 
foundations for the success so soon to 


69 


The Life of Saint Simon Stock 

crown his labors not only in England but 
in all the Provinces. Because of the pres¬ 
tige given by the Confraternity in its earli¬ 
est days, England became the most impor¬ 
tant Province in the whole Order and so it 
remained for a long period of time. In fact, 
its prestige was challenged by Sicily alone 
where the Confraternity, or as it was called 
there, from the beginning “La Compagnia,” 
had spread from one part of the Island to 
the other until it became universal. 

In 1254 Simon had to turn his attention 
to some new foundations in France. The 
pious King Louis had brought from Carmel 
six Carmelites to introduce the Order into 
Paris. In a short time the Carmelites were 
to be found in many parts of France and, 
finally, became not only numerous but very 
flourishing and influential in civil and 
religious life. 

Every three years the General Chapter 
was held at which assisted the principal 
men of the Order, namely, the Provincials 
and their companions. On almost every 
occasion Simon was present at these con¬ 
ventions; in this way he was in constant 
touch with the whole Order in Europe 
which even in his days had extended to 
Ireland and Scotland and Spain as well as 


70 


The Life of Saint Simon Stock 

having many new foundations in countries 
like Germany, France and Italy. At the 
General Chapter held in London, Simon 
lost one of his most active and reliable help¬ 
ers in the reform then going on, namely, 
Ralph Fresburn, who had come from Car¬ 
mel with him and had participated in all 
the early movements of the Order in 
England. Now old age had come upon him, 
hence he resigned his office of Provincial 
for England. Providence, however, re¬ 
served a good successor for the important 
office, so the Fathers elected Henry Hanna 
a man of great administrative ability and 
gifted with many fine intellectual qualities. 
Under him the progress of the English 
Province was almost phenomenal; and to 
him, as much as to Simon, was due the edu¬ 
cational opportunities inaugurated for the 
students in England. Shortly after his 
election to the Provincialate he founded a 
house for the Carmelites in Stockwell—a 
village in the confines of Oxford. Humphrey 
Neckton was the first Doctor in Theology 
of this University, but he was only the first 
of a long line of learned men who were a 
credit to the University as well as to the 
Order. In the same year, 1259, Peter 
Swaynington also obtained his Master’s 


71 


The Life of Saint Simon Stock 

degree in Theology. He had been the com¬ 
panion and secretary of Saint Simon al¬ 
though evidently much his junior in years. 
Simon, himself, is said to have received the 
same degree but only out of insistence on 
the part of the University Faculty who 
knew of his wonderful ability and his activ¬ 
ities for his Order. There appears no 
doubt that he had gained his degree of 
Bachelor of Divinity as early as 1244—but 
in the University of Cambridge. 

The Carmelites had even at this early 
period good schools of both Philosophy and 
Theology for their young students. This 
intellectual acitivty was clue to Simon who, 
however, had another splendid helper in 
the youthful Swaynington; Hanna also, al¬ 
though he does not seem to have been a 
Preacher for the people, was wont to give 
the students lectures which were of won¬ 
derful literary value. Not alone in England 
did this love of learning seize on the Car¬ 
melites but it became the common charac¬ 
teristic of the Order in France, and Ger¬ 
many, and Italy, especially during the 
succeeding years. 

There are two Papal Constitutions that 
make apparent to us the progress that 
Simon’s idea had made as to the combina- 


72 


The Life of Saint Simon Stock 

tion of the active and the contemplative 
life in the Order. First, in 1256, permis- 
son is given to administer the Sacraments 
to all persons in any way connected with 
the monasteries or the hermitages; then, 
in 1262, to this permission is added the 
more important one of administering the 
Sacraments to the faithful outside the mon¬ 
asteries. In this way the Carmelites were 
almost in daily intercourse with the faith¬ 
ful who were seeking their spiritual admin¬ 
istrations. A privilege, that appears to be 
a result of the Confraternity’s influence, is 
twice granted by Papal Constitution, 
namely, the burial of secular people in the 
graveyards of the Religious or rather in 
the Church precincts. We can see in this, 
new legislation the idea of Simon realized. 
The active life has placed the Carmelites in 
closer relations with the faithful and they 
are not entirely confined to the contempla¬ 
tive life. 

Not only in the sacred science of Theol¬ 
ogy did the Carmelites become proficient 
but in other branches of learning. We have 
William of Sandwich whose history is our 
only information on many matters of vital 
importance to the Order. Then, too, there 
was Peter “Argentoratensis” as he was 


73 


The Life of Saint Simon Stock 

called from his native city in Germany, an 
historian in addition to his other accom¬ 
plishments. Simon, himself, was a poet of 
no mean order and the sacred hymns, which 
he has left us, bespeak the sweetness and 
facility of a master’s mind. 

The chief works usually attributed to the 
Saint are “The Canons of Divine Worship”; 
“Homilies for the People” of which we have 
already spoken; “A Treatise on Christian 
Penance”; “Letters to the Brethren”; 
“Hymns in Honor of the Blessed Virgin’ — 
the best known of these being “Flos Car- 
meli” and the “Ave Stella Matutina.” 
Except for the time he spent in his cell at 
Carmel, his religious life was too full of 
active work to dedicate much of it to liter¬ 
ature; and any hours he could steal from 
the cares of his office he devoted them to 
contemplation and prayer in order that he 
might renew, and perfect, as far as was 
possible under the circumstances, the life 
he began in the rustic cell in Kent. 

The declining years of Simon knew no 
rest. He travelled unceasingly from place 
to place, ever encouraging the Brethren in 
their new life, whilst exhorting them not to 
forget the contemplative life which was 
distinctive of their origin and of the place 


74 


The Life of Saint Swion Stock 

whence the Order came. It was in the hun¬ 
dredth year of his age that he set out for 
the General Chapter to be held in France 
in the monastery of Toulouse. With his 
companions he arrived in Bordeaux, but it 
was destined by Providence that he was 
never to leave it alive. Falling sick he died 
surrounded by his Brethren from all parts 
of the Carmelite world. They were on their 
way to the General Chapter, and had been 
attracted to Bordeaux by the news of the 
serious illness of their General. On the six¬ 
teenth of May, in the year 1265, Simon 
Stock rendered his pure soul to his Creator 
and to Mary Queen of Carmel. One can 
easily imagine the intense sorrow not only 
of the Fathers assembled in Bordeaux, but 
of all Carmelites, for all had seen the won¬ 
derful works of their General and were 
witnesses to the progress the Order had 
made under his benign but effective rule; 
to intensify still more their grief it must 
have occurred to them that the finding of a 
fitting successor to Simon was a difficult 
task—if not an impossibility. 

It is meet that we narrate here the story 
told by his biographers about his body when 
laid in the tomb. 

Immediately after the body of Simon was 


75 


The Life of Saint Simon Stock 

laid to rest and the tomb was closed, a beau¬ 
tiful perfume exuded from the coffin where¬ 
in the body was reposing and remained 
around the burial-place. More remarkable 
still, the darkness of the place was put to 
flight by a very brilliant light which con¬ 
tinued to shine until the Brethren, in great 
consternation, summoned the Archbishop of 
Bordeaux. This Prelate was a man of great 
sanctity and had known Simon and the 
wonderful work he had done for the Blessed 
Virgin; hence, nothing doubting, he ordered 
the Brethren to remove the stone that 
covered the tomb and lo! the odor became 
stronger and stronger and the frame of the 
dead General seemed alive with a golden 
light. Age and a life of penance had reduced 
the body of Simon to the proportions of a 
skeleton but now those very bones almost 
protruding from the skin were the bearers 
of the wondrous illumination. Reverently 
the body was again enclosed in its tomb by 
the holy Prelate and then, at that very time 
and for centuries afterwards, wondrous 
works were witnessed at the tomb of Simon. 
The Brethren ever venerated him as a Saint 
and so did the people of Bordeaux. His 
relics were very much treasured and very 
much sought for by all the churches of the 


76 


The Life of Saint Simon Stock 

Order. Many extraordinary stories are 
recorded about their efficacy. It would be 
tedious to enumerate the well attested nar¬ 
ratives told about the powerful intercession 
of Simon with the good God whose delight 
is to show the spiritual greatness of those 
who have served him faithfully in life. 
Twice was the cause of the servant of God 
introduced before the Holy See, but the 
process had taken such time that it was 
seemingly forgotten after each attempt. The 
Holy Father Nicholas III conceded to the 
church in Bordeaux the Mass and the Office 
of a Confessor to commemorate the day on 
which Saint Simon Stock passed from earth 
to heaven. In the Calendar of the Carmel¬ 
ites every sixteenth of May is dedicated to 
the Feast of Saint Simon Stock as a Major 
Double Office of the Second Class (Duplex 
Majus S. C.), the lessons being proper. All 
Carmelites (as well as all wearers of the 
Scapular) can gain a Plenary Indulgence, 
on the usual conditions, by observing the 
Feast in the prescribed manner. 

Under an altar of precious marble, in one 
of the beautiful chapels of the great cathe¬ 
dral of Bordeaux, lies the body of Saint 
Simon Stock to whom our Blessed Lady 
gifted the Scapular. Time was when rever- 


77 


The Life of Saint Simon Stock 

ent pilgrims came from all parts of the 
world to ask the intercession of the Saint. 
Today only scanty numbers approach the 
shrine, for the wonderful life of Simon 
Stock is not now so well known. France, a 
land fertile in Saints, is loyally attending to 
those of her own children who have been 
raised to the altars of the Church. After 
all Simon is but a stranger in a strange land 
and, doubtless, with a heavenly charity, 
looks kindly on the national fidelity that 
prefers devotion to the native-born than to 
the stranger from afar. 

The Carmelites have reason to thank the 
generous Providence that ordained the 
death and burial of Simon in the Convent 
at Bordeaux. Had he been laid to rest in 
the land of his birth, his mortal remains 
would have been hidden in some secret 
place to escape the devastating hand of the 
ignorant fanatics amongst the reformers. 
With the destruction of the churches of his 
Ord^er and with the disappearance of the 
Religious, the memory of Simon and of his 
wondrous life should have passed into a 
kind of oblivion. It is quite true that, so 
long as the Scapular is worn and so long as 
there is a faithful soul attached to Our 
Lady of Carmel, the name of Simon Stock 


78 


The Life of Saint Simon Stock 

can not be obliterated from the minds of 
the people of the Church. 

Pious writers love to tell us that Saint 
Joseph was so long a forgotten saint be¬ 
cause of his relationship in life with the 
Son of God and the Blessed Virgin. This, 
indeed, was a blessed oblivion. But a time 
came when God would reveal the sanctity 
and the utility of the life of the Foster- 
Father of Jesus. Then it was that the 
faithful came to know Joseph and to beg 
his intercession and greater then was his 
glory and more profound the knowledge of 
him. In a lesser way by all means, yet the 
similitude is instructive, has the life of 
Simon been overshadowed by the magni¬ 
tude of the gift of God’s Mother to the 
faithful children of the Church. So many 
wear the Scapular and appreciate its won¬ 
derful spiritual advantages but, rarely, do 
they seek to know the life of him to whom 
the Mother of God gave it. We may not 
doubt that this is just as Simon would have 
it. The life that he so freely gave to her de¬ 
votion from the time he entered his tree-cell 
in Kent until he passed to his reward in 
Bordeaux is made more precious reposing 
in the shadow of his heavenly Mother’s gift 
to him and all Carmelites—“The Scapular.” 


79 














































































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